Blackout Bakes

In 10minutes my cake should have been ready. Then all of the sudden, the lights went out. We thought it was just our home. A peek out the window not long afterwards affirmed that the entire area was affected.

Nissa was in the kitchen - going back and forth to the oven, checking anxiously on the cake. She's so hyper these days and her occasional sugar crave can drive me up the wall at times. Nak Cool Blog lah, nak Slurpee lah. Tonite she asked me to bake a cake.

When the lights suddenly went off, she jumped like a grasshopper around the kitchen, shrieking as if she saw ghost. Ingatkan kenapa je budak ni terlompat-lompat macam makan belacan! Ohhh rupa-rupanya ada orang ketakutan...cheh badan je besar! 

Facebook-ing in the dark....bad, bad for the eyes!!

Anyway, power only came back after about 45mins of sweating in the dark. And my cake?? Would it survive? 

Well, it did!! When power came back, I added another 10mins to the baking time. And the cake turned out great.

I was lucky, that's for sure :)


Sent via Kay's Berry

The Waves and Her

I was doing house keeping onto my external hard disk when I found these pictures of Nissa during our trip to Kuantan in May. Being a newbie with Abe's DSLR, I thought I had accidentally deleted these pictures when I meddled with its memory card.

Perhaps I did fumble with the camera somehow, but I must have forgotten that I made back ups onto my hard disk as well.

Yeahhh...so happy I found them :)

Mom...can i go in?

Waves were big...and that got her a bit scared to venture further

Testing her footing

Waves treading...and she liked it

I'm all wet...don't mind me please

But, I'm having so much fun...

coz I have company....

I am all soaked!!

Oppss...more waves coming my way...

Scrammmm....

Nissa's wish list - how I wish my Mommy would allow me to be beach bummers like these.....

Justifying to her dad why she was all wet!!

Whatever it was.....peace y'all :))

Ivory Turns Ten

She flaunts a striking exhibition of unlikeness from her other siblings. If both her abang and kakak are mocha ice blended; Nissa, I'd say is Yeoh's soya milk. I recall that morning of March 11, 2001 when Doc Harris put her in my arms moments after she was born. My thoughts were, "Ohh...okay...my color scheme".

That shouldn't be the first thoughts crossing a mom's mind I know. But after a whole hour of huffin' and puffin' in the labour room, seeing this a bundle of joy whose complexion is closest to my (side of the family...he he) color scheme, I was extra elated. Of course, the tiny fingers, toes and eyes that squint opened whenever she got hungry or wet got us gu-gu ga-ga later on.

Ebony & Ivory

Today that 3.98kg baby girl turns TEN. This morning on the way to school, she said this to me, "I'm 10 Mom, no surprises on my birthday please." My baby is growing up so, so fast! I miss that little bouncy girl in dragging diapers that used to stir her from slumber.

In some distorted part of myself I wanted her to be crying; longing to spend lazy mornings with me, clinging onto my pants as I head out for work.

Hu hu....how fast time flies.

So Nissa...

Today you are 10
What more can we say,
You're becoming more special
Each and every day.
Blow out your candles
One by one
Enjoy your birthday
Have lots of fun.

Be proud of who you are and strive to be the best. Follow your dreams, put forth your efforts to achieve your goals and let God do the rest.

Sent via Kay's Berry

Nissa's Y.E.B

Nope it's not YES (year end SALE, that is) but it's a YEB - year end break. "School's out!!" shout the kids. But Moms and Dads are at wits end trying to figure out how best to keep them happy for the next 6 weeks or so.

I for one have no plans whats so ever yet. Nissa has whispered to me how she would like to spend this year end school hols. Some activities are pretty trivial, doable by everyone in the family. However, some may have to wait a little longer till Farah finishes her SPM exam in December. And yours truly will be preoccupied with ASEAN camp kicking off tomorrow. So the question is how do I keep this nine year old entertained when there is practically no one available to entertain her.

On her last day of school she told me that her friends are criss-crossing the globe holidaying. Amongst the names of places mentioned were Gold Coast, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Bali and others. When she asked me where are we heading to, I just smiled. And Nissa being Nissa, she could tell the difference between "a berisi smile" and "an empty smile". Tough huh? Having a nine year old in this Internet age. Ohhh yes.....she knows how to check ticket price and flight schedules on AA now. Soon I can no longer give her that "no flights avail" excuse coz I bet she'd double check on my info.

I'm hoping her trip to Kuantan with Abe next week will keep her travel bugs at bay for a while. Stressful isn't it? It's like living under the same roof with your boss (OMG...that would be really, really scary!!!)

So Nissa...chill okay :)

HSM Rockin' Saturday

"Five, six, seven, eighttt.... and turn!!"

That was her routine for the last couple of days. Last week, she even had to skip sekolah agama to attend practice session in school. She felt bad about not going for mengaji but at that age, nothing could stop her from jumping up and down doing the choreographed steps.

It was last month I think when she called me at work and informed me that she wanted to take part in the High School Musical My School Rocks cheer leading competition. My first question was, "You wanna dance?" She said, "Yes!!".

Nissa isn't exactly the athletic type, but she likes dancing. And the influence of Disney and the boys and girls from High School Musical has made her very, very keen to try her luck in the cheer leading competition. That's how it started. The next thing I knew, there were three other lil ones doing spins, splits and turns in the house together with her.

The foursome - Alia, Nissa, Raja Nur Samira & Alyssa

Nissa and friends passed the school audition with flying colours and to move to the next level which was also the selection round held in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) last Saturday.

Some sisterly aid here....Farah doing up Nissa's hair

Practice makes perfect

Alyssa the smallest of the four did the finale pyramid

Stiff competition...the elder children at practice

All in action on stage

Interviewed by the host....apparently the audition will be aired on one of the Astro channels

All four with their teacher/coach

What a relief after the show.....mommy pun legaaaaa......

With Zac & friends

Done for the day.....exhausted and sleepy, mana tak nya she was already up by 5.00am that Saturday morning.

Be Strong, Be Intelligent and Smile

At 33 weeks, I was so sleep deprived; tossing and turning with unbearable discomfort throughout the night. The bed could accommodate only me. Throw cushions were all around – two on the side, a few more at the edge and not counting the piles of pillows needed to support my aching back. The bed resembled a war zone of pillows. And at week 34, I had thrown out my sleeping partner. Too bad, but I think he somewhat willingly did so. One zombie in the house was enough; he had no intentions of adding on to the number.

Results from my last check up had caused more worry. DrH told me that that my baby was still in the butt first position. My heart sank at the news. I had hoped for the baby to turn, but apparently she wasn’t listening to Mommy’s telepathic pleas. I hadn’t the faintest idea of what to expect with a C-section as the other two children were normal. Thoughts of being cut opened gave me the creeps.

My labour was intensive; almost forgot how to do the pushing. Mana tak nye, the last time I made my appearance before DrH was like eight years ago. Machines and wires were every where. I remember looking at the monitor, and not at all amused by the chart plotting my contractions. Each time the graph showed a spike I went berserk – grabbing the gas mask, piercing Abe’s arms, calling names at the nurses when they were slow at giving me my shot of pain killers. Even with that shot, the pain was urgghhhhhh……..

Anyway, after some serious and intense huffin’, puffin’ and pushing (and a few screams too!!), sometime around 6.30am, Nissa Maisarah was born. She was long and weighed almost 4kg. When DrH placed her in my arms, this bundle of joy gave her first smile, and just like that the agony from the wait and pain was gone. The rest I could vaguely recall. Tau-tau dah in the room, and the nurses just couldn’t wait to pass the baby to me to breast feed (in the end tak breast feed pun coz had problems in the milky dept).

Nine years ago, that was how it happened.

Happy birthday dear Nissa….

Believe in magic and wish on stars. Dance, laugh, cry, and sing when you want to. Make faces. Play with lumpur and lopak. Pet rabbits, hold kittens, and talk to babies. Love and trust and be compassionate. Be strong. Be intelligent. Smile.

No matter how many birthdays come and go, you'll always be our little girl. May each of your days be filled with joy and sweet surprises.

More of Nissa's stories here and here.

Back to School

It was at the third hair salon that I finally managed to walk in and secure a seat without having to queue. The first two salons had like five people in front of us and the waiting time was like more than 20 minutes. That was the scene this evening when I took Nissa for her hair cut.

I guess most school going kids' moms like me are doing that same last minute "snip snip thing" before kids start school again tomorrow. Nissa, my youngest will be in year three next year. Unlike year 1 & 2, when she was in the afternoon session and had more time to get ready for school, year 3 will have her waking up early and all ready for the her school pick up at seven in the morning.

Sorry Babe, your pony tail and fringe have to go!!

Happy back to school kids....Sleep tight tonight coz new adventures and excitement await you in this new schooling year :)

Udah Sampei......

Yesterday, I received a text message from Bibik's daughter, Ros in Lampung, informing me that her mother has arrived home safely. According to Ros, Bibik didn't manage to get a flight from Jakarta to Bandar Lampung as there was none available on the same day she arrived. Left with no choice, she took the taxi (known as "travel" over there) back to her kampung. It's a longggggg journey, almost 24 hours of travel time from Jakarta to Bandar Lampung.

Nissa is slowly adjusting to the present situation at home. I spend some time to see her off to school in the morning and she's absolutely pleased with this arrangement. It was only on the first night that she was rather down. When I checked on her that night, I saw her buried under her pillow, sobbing away. She was heart-broken I could see. A big hug came from me, calmed her down and we chatted about why Bibik had to leave. Alhamdulillah....she understood everything that was explained to her and able to come to terms with the change.

She asked me to post a nice picture of her and Bibik in the blog and help her to express her feelings about Bibik's departure.

This is for you Nissa...cheer up and always know that we all love you so very much.

Never realized
How lonely it would be
when the day came
and you went away

You said good bye
How my heart ached
I tried hard not to cry
But memories of you
Will guide me thru’

Happy Birthday NISSA.

Nissa, my youngest turned 6 today. Not much of a celebration today as she had her birthday do in school last Friday.

Birthdays are so different these days. I remember one birthday party I had. Couldn’t really remember how old I was. I invited some school friends and also children from the neighborhood. Mom made fried noodles and some sandwiches. She also baked me a cake. It was a plain butter cake…smelling so fresh when it was put at the centre of the table. I shared it with the children who came. After the cake, we continued playing “catch” outside the house. When we got thirsty, we would go back into the house and drink up the orange cordial drink that Mom had made earlier. There seemed never enough drinks for all the thirsty rascals.

I don't believe in lavish birthday dos. So..that's how it was with Nissa's party....a simple and nice one. I figured since it will be her last birthday before she attends primary school, it would be good to have it at the kindergarten.

It was quite a challenge to figure out what would be fun and enjoyable for the children to have. Finally I came up with my list...party packs, candies, chocolates and balloons. I packed some party packs for the children and in them there went the candies and chocolates and balloons. And I was pretty sure the children would love this.

I decided to try out something different with the cake. Instead of the usual Disney or number shaped cake, I decided to get cup cakes for Nissa to share with her friends at school. The cup cakes came in blueberry and chocolate flavors. The exciting thing about these cup cakes was the way they were decorated and colored. All 50 cup cakes had interesting and colorful cream and patterns on them. This would be the first time I am trying this out. I really hoped the children would like it.

Unfortunately, I could not be with her at her school to celebrate with her. I also couldn’t see the expressions of the children when they saw the cup cakes. According to Farah, my second girl, the children took instantly to the cup cakes as they were very colorful and attractive. She called me at work later that day to thank me for the birthday do and told me how happy she was.

Colorful cuppies indulgence....... yummyyyyy :D